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AManVFood restaurant I would not recommebd

We chose to go to this restaurant as it was featured in the T show 'ManVFood' and we have been to a couple of other restaurants that were featured in the show and had great food. The two previous choices were 'Rendevous' for ribs in Memphis and 'Hash House a Go Go' in Las Vegas which I have reviewed previously.

This diner was meant to be famous for its great beef sandwich and so we thought we better go and investigate.

A BIT ABOUT KROLLS This diner is just across the road for Lambeau Field which is the home of the Green Bay Packers. Kroll's West is a family-owned restaurant that has been serving food for over 70 years in the Green Bay area. Krolls is itself a landmark apparently well known both nationally and internationally. Many famous people have eaten at the restaurant but when I looked at the wall of fame I struggled to recognise many names so they are obviously only famous in America unless I am very ignorant.

GETTING THEREThis was not so hard as the diner is right on a large road and opposite Lambeau Filed which is hard to miss. When we arrived i was a bit surprised to see that it was not an attractive building at all. It looked more like a garage than a restaurant. There was a large car park and several parking spaces in the shade of a roof covering. As it was late afternoon we didn't worry too much about finding shade.

We parked the car and then took some photos of the sign and Lambeau field before trying to find an entrance. It was not that obvious and certainly not at all inviting. We went on in and were greeted by a lady who took us to a table.

Inside the place was pretty big and you could choose to sit in a booth or at a table. We chose a booth where we could see the kitchen area which was behind a counter but within view of the restaurant diners which is always a good sign.

The waitress was an older lady and slightly off hand which is unusual for the USA. She pointed out the menu on the table and asked if we would like some drinks. As we had driven to the restaurant we chose soft drink and went for root beer. In America when you choose a soft drink it is usually bottomless but no-one came and offered us any more which I thought was pretty poor as the place was almost empty. My husband did ask for some more in the end but we had to make the effort and we were certainly not impressed by the service.

THE 'MANVFOOD' PRIME RIB SANDWICHWe had chosen this place because of the 'Man V Food' connection so my husband chose the sandwich that he had made on the T show. This was the Prime Rib Sandwich which on the show looks enormous.

This is the 'ManVFood 'Bitescore rating for this one:"BITE Score Rating:B- It goes through that toaster with the Swiss on it so it actually becomes one flavor. Toasting it is absolutely key.I- Take that beautiful rare prime rib and sear it and combine that with the soft velvety-ness of the vegetables and it's incredible.T- One of the most tender steak sandwiches I've ever come across. It's rich and buttery and beefy and the taste is absolutely extraordinary.E- They're using good products and they're doing it in a clever way. No restaurant stays in business for 70 years if they're not doing something right."

This is basically a hot beef sandwich on something they call a semolina roll supposedly with 8oz of prime rib beef, sautéed mushroom and peppers and a special jus and a tablespoon of butter. Heart attack here we come!!

MY HUSBAND's VERDICTFirstly it did come like the picture shows it with chips or fries which was lucky as my husband was hungry after he finished anyway. It came wrapped in paper and was actually quite small for an American sandwich. Now normally 'ManV Food' stuff is known for its rather stupendous size. This was verging on the small size. This was a very pricy $8.75

Anyway my husband unwrapped this and took a bit. Firstly the butter gave it a really rather greasy appearance and taste. The meet was lovely and tender but rather tasteless as there was no additional flavour added it was just roasted beef thinly sliced. The mushrooms and peppers must have been on holiday and the so called special jus was not that exciting. My husband said it probably goes down as one of the worst meals we had while in America this time. It was rather greasy and lacked any real flavour apart from meat.

Anyway enough about my husband's poor choice what did I have? I chose a sandwich too because we thought that they would be fairly substantial and sadly we were disappointed. Mine was a Walleye Sandwich which was "Lightly broasted with butter and tartar sauce." I wish I had asked for it without the butter as it was very rich and a bit too greasy for me but otherwise quite tasty but at $7.75 was not a cheap sandwich. I have still to work out what 'broasted ' means as we saw it quite a lot. I am guessing it means a cross between roasted and grilled which in the USA is called broiling, but still not sure.

Anyway having eaten our less than exciting meals I decided to go and explore the wall of fame they mentioned in the menu to see if I recognised anyone at all. I think most of them were baseball players but I did manage to find Adam Richman's signature and he was the only person I recognised.

The restaurant itself was huge with lots of tables and booths but the ceiling was quite low which made it feel a bit claustrophobic. I think if it had been full it would have been very noisy and as we had to wait for service and it was less than attentive when it was pretty empty heaven only knows how long you might wait if it was full.

Being a sports bar come restaurant there were huge TVs all around and when we were there as it was not yet baseball season the TVs were showing the 'ManVFood' programme on a loop.

I went to examine the baseball display and the other sporting memorabilia but nothing really made any impression on me. The bar was a separate section and it was empty when we were there. We were there at a strange time as it was around 4.30 but we had missed lunch so we thought we would eat here as a sort of lunch/evening meal and then just have a drink and snack in our room later.

RECOMMENDED?Well I certainly wouldn't recommend the sandwich that is going up for 'Nation's Best Sandwich' as according to my husband it was flavourless and I have to say my mouthful would back that up. My sandwich was greasy. I think I would suggest anyone wanting to try it ask for no butter as it is really greasy and rich and quite sickly. I wish we had opted for a meal as for the price of these sandwiches we had enjoyed full meals elsewhere.

My husband was still hungry. I wasn't but I needed something fresh as I felt slightly queasy from the greasiness. I am sure there are better places to eat in green Bay and we were disappointed but it is obviously very popular as it has a big name in the area so maybe we were just unlucky.

We left after paying without leaving a tip which is unusual for us but the service was poor and the food very disappointing and not cheap for what we got.